Musharraf: Islamic Militancy Rising
Pastor Dale Morgan
May 19, 8:22 PM EDT
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Musharraf: Islamic Militancy Rising*
By MUNIR AHMAD
Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- President Gen. Pervez Musharraf acknowledged
that Islamic militancy was increasing across Pakistan and said tough
measures were needed to counter it, as religious students from a
pro-Taliban mosque abducted four police officers.
Musharraf made his remarks in an interview aired late Friday by the
private Aaj television channel after four plainclothes officers were
captured while patrolling in the capital, Islamabad, near the Lal Masjid
mosque - notorious for launching its own anti-vice campaign. Two
officers were later released.
The president said that militancy in Pakistan was increasing, and "we
need to strongly counter it." Musharraf did not elaborate.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a cleric at Lal Masjid, said his students detained
the officers because they were standing outside a seminary linked to the
mosque despite an agreement with authorities that police would not be
deployed there.
He said the abductions were in retaliation for intelligence agents
detaining eight or nine of its students in the past two weeks.
Mohammed Anar, an area police official, said that Ghazi had freed two of
the policemen after talks with officials.
"The remaining two policemen will also be freed soon," Ghazi told reporters.
Critics have accused Musharraf's government of appeasing the religious
vigilantes - despite concerns that pro-Taliban hard-liners, intent on
enforcing a stringent version of Islamic law or Shariah, are gaining
sway in Pakistan.
Last month, female students at Lal Masjid on a freelance anti-vice
campaign sprung to prominence by kidnapping an alleged brothel owner and
forcing her to make a confession. The mosque later declared it had set
up its own Islamic court, and threatened music and movie shops to close.